GREGORY
798
GREGORY
dealt more severely with heretics than other rulers did.
Death by fire was the common punishment for here-
tics and traitors in those times. Up to the time of
Gregory IX the duty of searching out heretics be-
longed to the bishops in their respective dioceses.
The so-called Monastic Inquisition was established by
Gregory IX, who in his Bulls of 13, 20, and 22 April,
1233, appointed the Dominicans as the official inquisi-
tors for all dioceses of France (RipoU and Bremond,
"Bullarium Ordinis Fratrum Prsedicatorum ", Rome,
1729, I, 47).
For a time Gregory IX lived in hope that he might efifect a reunion of the Latin and Greek Churches. Germanos, Patriarch of Constantinople, after a con- versation on the religious differences between the Greeks and the Latins, which he had with some Franciscans at Nice, in 1232, addressed a letter to Gregory IX, in which he acknowledged the papal primacy, but complained of the persecution of the Greeks by the Latins. Gregory IX sent him a cordial answer and commissioned four learned monks (two Franciscans and two Dominicans) to treat with the patriarch concerning the reunion. The papal mes- sengers were kindly received both by the Emperor Vatatzes and by Germanos, but the patriarch said that he could make no concessions on matters of faith without the consent of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. A sjTiod of the patriarchs was held at Nympha in Bithynia, to which the papal messengers were invited. But the Greeks stubbornly adhered to their doctrine concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost and asserted that the Latins could not validly consecrate imleavened bread. Thus Gregory IX failed, like many other popes before and after him, in his efforts to reunite the two Churches. In 1237 the Patriarch of the Syrian Monophysites and many of his bishops and monks renounced their heresy and submitted to the pope (Raynaldus ad annum 1237, n. 87 sq.), but their conversion was only temporar}'.
During the thirteen years and four months of his pontificate he created about fourteen cardinals, many of whom were members of religious orders. The best known among them are Sinibald of Fiesco, a learned canonist, who afterwards ascended the papal throne as Innocent IV; Raynald of Segni, a nephew of Greg- ory IX, who succeeded Innocent IV as Alexander IV; Otto of Montferrat, who spent over three years ( 1237- 1240) as papal legate in England; Jacob of Vitry, an author, confessor of Bl. Marj' of Gignies, whose life he wrote (Acta SS., June, IV, 636-66); St. Francis Xon- natus; and the learned and pious Englishman, Robert of .Somercote, who, it is said, would have succeeded Gregory IX on the papal throne had he not died dur- ing the conclave (26 Sept., 1241). Gregory IX was also a man of learning, which he encouraged in various ways. He bestowed many privileges upon the Uni- versity of Paris, his Alma Mater, but also watched carefully over its professors, whom he warned repeat- edly against the growing tendency of subjecting theol- ogy to philosophy by making the truth of the mysteries of faith dependent on philosophical proofs. He also possesses the great merit of having again made Aristotelian ism the basis of .scholastic philosophy, after the Physics of Aristotle had been prohibited in 1210, and his Metaphysics in 1215. The prohibition of Aristotle was meant only for the perverted Latin translation of his works and their Averroistic com- mentaries. Gregory IX commissioned William of Auvergne and other learned men to purge the works of Aristotle of their errors and thus made them again accessible to students. Among the greatest achieve- ments of Gregory IX must be counted the collection of papal decretals, a work with which he entrusted Ray- mond of Pennaforte and which was completed in 1234 (see Decretals). The numerous letters of Gregory IX were first collected and published by Pamelius (Antwerp, 1572). Rodenburg edited 485 letters of
Gregory IX, selected by Pertz from the papal registers
of the thirteenth century, and published them in
"Mon. Germ. Epist. Rom. Pontif." (Berlin, 1883), I,
261-728. Lucian Auvray began (Paris, 1890) to edit
" Les Registres de Gregoire IX, recueil des bulles de ce
pape, publiees ou analysees d'apres les manuscrits
originaux du Vatican", of which the eleventh fascicle
appeared in 1908.
A Life of Gregory IX, Vila Gregorii IX, was written by a con- temporary of Gregory IX, perhaps Joannes de Ferentino. It was published by SIcratori in Rerum Ilaticorum Scriplores (Milan, 1728), III, i, S77-58S. Concerning it see Marx, Die Vita Gregorii IX quellenkritisch untersucht (Berlin, 1889). The two best modern references are: Balan, Storia di Gregorio IX e dei suoi tempi, 3 vols. (Modena, 1872-3); Felten, Papst Gregor IX. (Freiburg, 1886); see also Koehler, Verhallniss Friedrichs II zu den Papsten seiner Zeit (Breslau, 1888); Ht;ily- lard-Breholi.es, Historia diplomatica Frederici II, 12 vols. (Paris, 1852-61); Boehmer-Ficker, Regesten des Kaiser- rei^hes (Innsbruck, 1879-81); Winkelmann, Acta imperii inedita sac. XIII el XIV, 2 vols. (Innsbruck, 1880-85); Pagi, Breviarium GestorumPont. Rom. (Venice, 1730). Ill, 214-243.
Michael Ott.
Gregory X, Pope; b. 1210; d. 10 January, 1276. The death of Pope Clement IV (29 November, 1268) left the Holy See vacant for almost three years. The cardinals assembled at Viterbo were divided into two camps, the one French and the other Italian. Neither of these parties could poll the two-thirds majority vote, nor was either willing to give way to the other for the election of a candidate to the papacy. In the summer of 1270 the head and burgesses of the town of Viterbo, hoping to force a vote, resorted to the ex- pedient of confining the cardinals w'ithin the episcopal palace, W'here even their daily allowance of food was later on curtailed. A compromise was finally arrived at through the combined efforts of the French and Sicilian kings. The Sacred College, which then con- sisted of fifteen cardinals, designated si.x of their body to agree upon and to cast a final vote in the matter. These six delegates met, and on 1 September, 1271, united their ballots in choice of Teobaldo Visconti, archdeacon of Liege, who, however, was not a cardinal himself, nor even a priest. The new pontiff was a native of Piacenza and had been at one time in the ser\nce of Cardinal Jacopo of Palestrina, had become archdeacon of Liege, and accompanied Cardinal Otto- boni on his mission to England, and at the time of his election happened to be in Ptolemais (Acre), with Prince Edward of England, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Recei%'ing a summons from the cardinals to return immediately, he began his homeward jour- ney on 19 November, 1271, and arrived at Viterbo on 12 February, 1272. He declared his acceptance of the dignity and took the name of Gregory X. On 13 March he made his entrj' into Rome, where on the nineteenth of the same month he was ordained to the priestliood. His consecration as pope took place on 27 March, He plunged at once with all his energies into the task of solving the weighty problems which then required his attention: the restoration of peace between Christian nations and princes, the settlement of affairs in the German empire, the amendment of the mode of life among clergy and people, the union of the Greek Church with Rome, the deliverance of Jcru-salem and of the Holy Land. As early as the fourth day after his coronation he svmimoned a general cotmcil, which was to open at Lyons on 1 May, 1274 (see Lyons, Councils of). In Italy the pope sought to make peace between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, whose factional war raged chiefly in Tuscany and Lombardy. Against the city of Florence, the bur- gesses of which resisted these efforts to bring about a reconciliation, he issued a decree of excommunication.
After the death of Richard of Cornwall (1272) Gregory advised the German princes to select a new sovereign and refused the demand of Alfonso of Cas- tile, rival of Richard, for recognition as emperor. Rudolf of Hapsburg having been elected on 29 Sep-
